According to data published by Insight View, Iberinform's advanced analytics service, the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic in the fruit and vegetable sector has led to an increase in the number of Spanish companies that are at risk of default. Specifically, 19% of industrial companies devoted to the processing and preservation of fruits and vegetables are at a maximum or high level of default, while that share rises to 20% among companies devoted to their wholesale or retail sale.
Although the lockdown measures of the first semester gave a strong boost to the consumption of fruit and vegetables, the pandemic has had a disruptive impact on the sector's costs, affecting the supply of human capital and the logistics chains of a key sector that has maintained its activity to guarantee the supply at all times.
An analysis of the sector's accounts shows very tight margins, slightly above 2% in both the industrial and commercial segments. This increases the impact of the tensions of the value chain on the credit risk of its businesses.
According to the data provided by Insight View, 23% of the processing industries and 20% of the service companies in the fruit and vegetable sector are based in Andalusia. The rest are mostly in the Region of Valencia (11% of processors, 19% of service providers), Catalonia (9% and 15%) and Murcia (10% and 9%).
Source: agronewscastillayleon.com
